rugbydiver:
Hey Mike -- if she's at the Hilton, then that's where we'll be. I'd tell her to look for the drunk rugby player, but there will be a few of us there that fit the description. Look for the rugby player who's got kelp in his teeth... that'll be me.
yep. She's at the SanDestin Hilton. Since that's her main job there, I'm betting she'll be at the wedding (at least in the "background").
For everyone, back to diving -- is it just the jetties that are worth going to, or are there some good boat dives as well? What's the viz like further out, or is boat diving not worth it in this area?
I think the Jetties are worth going to. It's one of the best shore dives I've done. Especially in these parts. Even more so when they want $80 bucks for a 4hour boat trip. Vis is usually good if you hit it at high tide. (you can check tide times online). To drive from SanDestin to either the jetties or the dive shops/boats in Destin allow for 30 minutes. maybe 45 in peak time. Traffic can be a ***** during the peak summer. (at best in "low traffic it'll take you 15 minutes)
You basically have two boat operations to choose from in Destin. Or "sorta two". Scubatech has an oil crew boat that they run. But they wimp out if the seas get over 3 feet. They cancel a lot of trips. When I was down there I scheduled to dive with them 2 days and they canceled one. The other shop is Emerald Coast Scuba. Their boat seems like it hardly ever goes past the jetties. (what that means it that they seem to cruise the 1/4 mile from the harbor to the jetty, throw anchor and divers get in the water. Oh.. yeah.. btw, this is to the same dive site that we all walk to.).
In Destin other popular dive sites are the Miss Louise Tug (60 feet of water) and the Bridge Rubble piles. There is the "main bridge rubble pile" and a few others. I saw a huge (100 lb) grouper on the main pile this past May. Rumor is that they were supposed to dump all the ruble in the same place, but that fishermen went out and kept moving the bouy around that what what the dump boat used as a reference. the result was the piles moved around a bit.
I did a boat dive out of Panama City. We dove a couple spots called "the spans". They are sections of bridge spans taken out and sunk..
Chances are that if you dive an "inshore" trip in Panama City that you'll dive on one of these spans. They are the steel structure and road bed of the old Hathway Bridge that ran over part of the bay. They took it out and sunk it for a reef. Bridge Span #14 I think is the nearest one to the inlet. It's a good dive but if you dive there often it'd get boring. Another nearby dive site to this one that the dive operators hit a lot (way too often) is the Black Bart. It's a 180 foot oil crew equipment boat that is sunk in about 80-90 feet of water. you can swim in it's holds and pilot house. It's even got a plastic skeleton in the pilot house with it's feet in concrete buckets. kinda funny. BTW... Panama City is about a 45-50 minure drive from San Destin, but it's all 3 lane highway and is pretty easy since there aren't many traffic congestions between them.
Average dive cost in Panama City or Destin will run you about $75-$80 for a 4 hour trip. (does not include gear, tank rentals or weights, which you can rent at the shop).
Other dives you might be interested in that are more "inland" are Vortex Springs and Morrison Springs. Both are about an hour north of the beach but are very interesting if you've never dove in a freshwater spring and it's "cavern". Vortex is $32 but includes an air fill. Morrison is free, but has no dive shop on site. (it's a state/county park).
Since we've really got your interest "peaked" now, You might want to buy a copy of
Diving Guide to Underwater Florida by Ned Deloach. It's $13-$15 bucks and well worth it. It had a description of every wreck and dive site out there almost and is divided up in sections of the state. See
http://www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?id=3492177248489&isbn=1878348396 . Amazon.com has it also. Make sure to pick up I think the 11th edition and not the 10th. Price will be the same but he republishes it every 2-3 years with new sites, etc. The 11th edition has the big grouper on the cover. This book is well worth the purchase and you can use it for years for planning purposes of about any dive in Florida.
Hope that helps some. Have fun.
-Mike
